To Alice

I've been inspired recently by the pictures which Kate has been posting and it will end up costing me money, as I have to replace my old faithful Nikon with one of those new fangled digital jobbies.

Anyway, as Kate is about to get the decorations dusted off and everyone is preparing for the Festival of Greed in their own way, all your posts prompted me to pass on one of the memories of Christmas that will stay with me forever.

I was down at the boatyard which is owned by one of my oldest friends and he asked if I would mind nipping over with him to see his mother and deliver some garden furniture.
His mother's name was Alice, she sadly passed away a couple of years ago, and she was a wonderful character. She was from an old Romany family and had a real twinkle in her eye, a superb dry sense of humour and a real warmth, calmness and wisdom that made you think "well that's o.k. then".

We loaded up the truck and drove the five miles to Alice's house, un-loaded the garden table and struggled with it down the side of the house and into the back garden.
"Where do you want this Alice" I asked, and that's when it started.

Alice - "You see that bit down the bottom by the hedge"?

Us - (carrying the table) "yes"

Alice - "Well don't put it there because it only gets the sun in the morning. That grass by the apple tree....."

Us - (carrying the table) "yes"

Alice - "I don't think I want it there....."

This went on for a bit and the we said "don't tell us where you don't want it Alice, it's too bloody heavy to run around the garden with"

We settled on the perfect spot in the end and Alice suggested we had a cup of tea and could we help her sort her decorations for the tree.
We were greeted by 2 large boxes of baubles and tinsel and 2 large boxes of tree lights which looked they had been dragged through somewhere that lights shouldn't be dragged.
A nice cup of tea and 45 minutes later we had un-tangled the lights and checked through every single bulb to make sure they were all tight and would not pose a fire risk.
30 minutes later we had to admit that we couldn't get any of the damn things to work and did Alice want us to get her some new ones.
All this time Alice and her neighbour had us in hysterics with their stories and were watching us getting more and more frustrated at our failure to fix the lights.

Alice - "That's o.k. they didn't work last year either so I got some more, do you want another cup of tea"?

It always makes me smile when I think of that morning over at Alice's house and it's a shame that the spirit of friendship, family and good humour is lacking in these days of consumerism and selfishness.

We will raise a glass to Alice again this year as we meander down the river to the Wherry Pub for our annual winter trip and remember the laughs we shared for so many years.